"gOING gREEN THIS diwALI!!!"

The very thought of Diwali floods one’s mind with crackers, vibrantly lit sky, sweets and a reason to celebrate…With the deadlines we have to meet each day, with the  cut-throat competition we have to survive and the blind rat race we run each minute to make a place in the world is making us so mechanical that we forget the real essence of celebrating Diwali and it has grown beyond its purpose... It began with the return of Lord Rama from a 14-year exile in the forest after defeating Ravana, or cheering the killing of the demon Narkasura by Krishna...It signifies the triumph of good over evil and dispelling the darkness with light...

 

In the midst of all the fun, laughter and celebration the fragile state of the earth must be kept in mind and also those less privileged than ourselves…This Diwali was different and special for me…The seeds of concern for the environment which were sowed in my mind inspired me to do something this Diwali…I wanted to spread some awareness about the menace we create in the name of God and Diwali….. Firecrackers are obvious contributors to noise and dust pollution, emitting hazardous chemicals…The crackers we burst not only adds to the problem of global warming but also troubles animals, old people, new born babies and the like…

Inspired by the plantation I did in Pune in August organized by my pageant coach I planned to carry on the drive in Delhi in my hostel (AWWA)….When I proposed this idea of celebrating a no-crackers Diwali and planting trees in a open house meeting in the hostel not many people agreed to it…But eventually everyone agreed and the response was great…Even our strict but affectionate manager agreed to it..Wow!!!That was real relief….All my hostel inmates from 1^st years to PGs cooperated…We collected money and bought saplings....We decided to plant it in the barren ground jus next to our hostel….

All the preparations were made for the special Diwali….Sweets, new clothes, vibrant rangoli, Lakshmi Pooja and yes saplings and trees for the plantation….

We got our hands dirty in the mud…Since it was Diwali we started by planting Tulsi…and then filled the entire place but Gladula,Iris,Star Jasmine, Malta Trees,Neem Trees, and the like…
  




It was amazing and as rilly a great success with the cooperation of all the AWWAites…Thank You All….AWWA Rocks!!!

"What can you do to save the world????"

It was like any other day when we were having our class and our pageant coach was taking a ppt on “what can you do to save the world???”…It made all of us think….Saving the world???It was a tough

thing to decide…Finally one of us suggested of planting trees…The alarming increase in the rate of global warming and the untimely change in the weather convinced all of us for it….They say ‘charity begins at home’ so we decided to start in our neighbourhood itself on 27^th of August 2009…

It was really fun cash contribution,deciding what plants were to be planted,making cute green ribbons,and the like….We got our manicured hands into the mud….lol…

But it was an amazing experience planting Ashoka saplings,yellow Alamandas and Impatience flower…It made all of our aware that how jus by doing small things how we can add so much to our society…Today when I see the flowers blooming I feel proud of each of us…Thank you ma’am for making us aware of what we were capable of….

Environment-Then and Now...

For millions of years, the sun’s energy has nourished thena Earth,generating and sustaining all plant and animal life on the planet. A large amount of that energy bounces back into space and some of it is captured by the atmosphere, maintaining warmth and natural balance.

That harmony has been unbalanced by human beings.Our consumption of coal, petrol, diesel, etc,and other human activity such as mining, clearing forests for wood, even agriculture, generates carbon dioxide(CO2),methane, and other greenhouse gases.CO2 levels in the atmosphere have gone up from 280 parts per million at the time of Industrial Revolution to about 

382 ppm currently. 


Other gases emitted raise this figure to an equivalent of 427 ppm.These gases don’t allow the sun’s heat to escape sufficiently, hence warming the planet, the atmosphere, the land, even the deep ocean. As a consequence, on an average, the Earth is at least 0.76 degrees centigrade (1.4 degrees F) warmer than it was at the time of the Industrial Revolution. Much of this happened in the last few decades.

Already as a consequence, permafrost-ice that has remained frozen since the last Ice Age is melting. Droughts in the Horn of Africa are most frequent, affecting the poor there. More intense rainfalls(such as the one that hit Bombay a few years ago, in which a thousand people were killed) getting more common, as are intense cyclones, such as Hurricane Katrina.

Islands are drowning and people are losing their lands and livelihood, such as in the Sundarbans 
as the sea level slowly gets higher and eats away at the low lying lands;glaciers, including the source of the river Ganga, are receding. The crazy weather is there for all to see - floods in Rajastan, drought in Cherrapunji, snow in Dubai…it’s strange and its all related to global warming. Its been estimated by the WHO that 1,50,000 additional people are dying each year from diseases, which spread more widely due to warming. And 0.76 degrees is only an average. Some areas are warming more. In India for instance it is expected that North India will warm more than other regions.Also,further warming is unavoidable because the gases mentioned above stay in the atmosphere long after they are emitted. Hence the gases we emit now will continue to warm the Earth for generations in the future.

Nature as we have known it and the planet itself is at stake .As someone said,it’s the only one we’ve got..
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